


Harp String Hum

by LadyLondonderry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Bullying, Hippogriffs, M/M, Magic, Sad Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 13:43:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12082221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLondonderry/pseuds/LadyLondonderry
Summary: Louis Tomlinson is starting his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, with his two best friends Liam and Niall. It's going to be an amazing last year, he'll make sure of that.Except... There's a new student at the back of Potions class who's a bit mysterious. And a wispy dog running around school grounds. It all feels a bit of a mystery.





	Harp String Hum

**Author's Note:**

  * For [letsjustsee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsjustsee/gifts).



> Rachel!! I am so late but this IS for your birthday! Can you believe? I can't! It's also late at NIGHT and my contacts are dry and I can't see well as I type this ahahahaaaaaaa oops. BUT LISTEn. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. I CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS. WE're GONNA SEE HARRY AND IT'LL BE GREAT.  
> I hope you like this! It went in a lot of directions and I wasn't always sure where, but it's done! Yay!
> 
>  
> 
> This fic was written as part of an ongoing challenge. We each select random numbers and are given a specific emotion from the book 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names. To read the other fics written in this challenge, [click here](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/ShortFic_Challenge_For_Which_There_Is_No_Name/works), or you can find the masterpost on tumblr [here](http://lululawrence.tumblr.com/post/159679804243/1000-feelings-for-which-there-are-no-names-prompt).
> 
> No.60 - The fear that someone will discover your failure to perform an assigned task.

On September 1st, the Hogwarts Express pulls away from the station at 11am. It has done this every year since 1830. For the most part, the students are all happily boarded at this point, with the windows down so that they can yell their goodbyes to family as it starts off. Louis’s always a little… late, having to wrestle a hoard of siblings down to the train station (few of which actually boarding the train) means leaving in the early hours of the morning from their house and only  _ just barely _ getting there in time. When he rushes onto the train lugging his trunk in both hands, Niall’s apparently spotted him through the window because his Irish lilt rings out through the passageway for Louis to  _ get his arse over there. _

“Oh do be quiet!” Louis shouts back, pulling his trunk to one side and helping Lottie pull her trunk off of the platform as well. She’s much too tiny to be attending Hogwarts, Louis thinks (that’s what he told her this morning too, right before she squeaked and kicked him under the table), but he supposes that being a Seventh Year, all First Years are going to look painfully small in comparison.

“Alright  _ alright, _ I’ve got it!” Lottie says, tugging it back from him once he’s lifted it onto the train. Tommy, her persian, circles her shoulders and meows plaintively, desperate as always for affection. At least Louis’s own cat, Lulu, is sitting patiently on his own trunk waiting for him to get a move on. 

(Lulu is terrific at keeping her balance as Louis lugs the trunk she’s sitting on from carriage to carriage).

“Fine yes, I get it,” Louis relents, letting Lottie maneuver herself. “Too good to be seen with your older brother, I see how it is. Go make friends now and I’ll see you at the Sorting.”

Lottie looks frightened for only a moment at the prospect of the Sorting so, for good measure, Louis leans over and smacks her forehead with a kiss. She shoves him away, nerves gone, and wipes her face in disgust.

Louis makes it only three rooms down before finding where Niall and Liam have claimed, pulling his trunk in and waiting for Liam to help him put it up in the luggage space (he’s a prefect, he’ll do that sort of thing).

“Lads, if we add another person to our friend group they’re going to have to be Hufflepuff,” Louis says as a greeting, plopping down onto the cushion next to Niall.

“Wasn’t Liam almost a Hufflepuff?” Niall says absentmindedly, still looking out the window as the train pulls out of the station.

“I regret ever telling you guys that,” Liam says, making an effort to hoist Louis’s trunk up to the shelf above their heads. Lulu stays resting on the trunk, occasionally shifting to stay on whatever surface is on top.

“Yes but either way we also need to find a Slytherin, and everyone knows Slytherins are full of themselves.”

_ “Hey,” _ Liam tries to butt in, getting more aggravated.

“It’s okay Liam,” Louis says. “Your boy is different. Even though he’s a prefect.”

“I should really find better friends,” Liam mumbles as Niall finally turns his attention from the window, the landscape outside having turned to roofs and chimney stacks.

“You should really take a nap,” Niall says. “It’s too early in the school year to be this grumpy.”

Louis erupts in laughter at that, leaving Liam to continue weakly protesting.

It feels like home, being here on the train again with his two best friends. Sure, they’d met up a couple times throughout the summer but Niall is from all the way up in Ireland and Liam lives two hours away by broom (the cost of floo powder has been hit by inflation and with all of his siblings’ different summer activities they’ve had to be a bit frugal with their use of it). It’s just not the same, going down for a few days from time to time in the summer, compared to the days he knows lie ahead full of sneaking around the castle, sunning near the lake and versing each other in Quidditch (okay, Niall’s a bit useless in Quidditch so he only gets put in if something terrible has happened to another Ravenclaw but  _ it happens). _

They play catch-up, trying to recount every exciting thing to happen to them over the summer (Lottie accidentally set the roof on fire, which was definitely a highlight for Louis), and eventually when the trolley comes around they pool their coins in order to buy enough sweets to stuff their bags with and eat in the dormitories.

When Liam eventually has to leave them for the prefect’s cabin, Niall and Louis boo him so loud that Lulu wakes up and takes offence, hissing from her spot above them. She’s a gentle cat but hates being woken up without need.

Louis leaves to don his robes eventually, having stood on a seat to get them out of the trunk without getting it down. He makes his way to the end of the carriage and is lucky enough to get there just as a little first year is scurrying out, robes pooling at his feet.

Inside the loo, he strips off his jumper and tosses it aside (house elves mean the loos here are kept much cleaner than muggle trains, he’s noticed). He’s just about to put on the clothes he’s brought in with him when suddenly he’s thrown off by a bright blue light shining in front of him.

He jumps back, legs hitting the toilet, and wonders briefly if there’s a Hogwarts Express ghost he doesn’t know about. That would be ridiculous, though - it’s his seventh year riding the train and clearly  _ somebody _ would have noticed it.

He steadies himself and gets a clearer look at the light, which appears to be dancing about. It’s difficult because it’s such a small room but Louis makes out the form of a dog. It’s a big dog too, coming up to his waist and jumping around him excitedly. He’s wispy looking, almost like he’s made of light and smoke, and Louis is almost afraid that he’s about to be haunted by this mysterious dog, but then as quickly as he appeared he vanishes again, bounding through the wall leaving the room much more dim. 

Louis dons his robes quickly, feeling like something very weird has taken place here but not knowing quite what, and opens the door, nearly stumbling into another student who’s standing in the hallway outside.

He’s got curly hair down past his ears and looks startled when Louis nearly bowls into him, reaching out his hands to steady him.

“Sorry,” Louis says. “Loos might be haunted, don’t be alarmed.” He’s off back down the hallway before the boy is able to say anything in reply. It would make sense that the Hogwarts Express had haunted loos. Maybe he’s just never been in the right one before.

When he gets back to the cabin, Liam has reappeared, meaning they’re stopping soon. The incident is all but forgotten when Niall informs him that Liam’s  _ friend who is a boy _ just might have asked him  _ on a date. _

“It’s not a date,” Liam is quick to correct. “He just wanted to know if I wanted help with reviewing spells from last year. We’ve got NEWTs this you know!”

“Don’t remind me,” Louis says, sitting back down. “Let us know how the date goes.”

— 

Of course, it being the first day in the castle, Louis manages to run into Professor Longbottom  _ literally _ in the corridor, and earns himself a scolding so long he fears his ears may fall off. He’s already late to dinner because he wanted to see if he could sneak into his dorm and catch the house elves setting up everyone’s things, but the lecture from Professor Longbottom on top of that meant that by the time he makes his way into the Great Hall, the hat has already begun sorting students.

Thankfully, having a last name near the end of the dictionary, he spies Lottie up there still in line, looking determined and serious like this is a test she has to pass.

He slides into a spot near the end of the Gryffindor table, high fiving the girl next to him, Bebe, who seems to have shaved half her head over the summer (it’s a good look for her).

He looks out across the tables and spies Niall at the blue table (eyeing the empty platters hopefully) and Liam further up hi own (who is giving him a stern look from across the way). He smirks and turns back to the front of the room, waiting for Lottie to be called up.

The hat slips over her eyes, poor thing, and she looks especially tiny that way, sitting with her hands gripping the sides of the stool. Louis holds his breath, because he knows she’s a bit insecure about the idea of being sorted into Hufflepuff, until the hat shouts out, “Slytherin!”

It feels a little odd clapping for a new Slytherin from the Gryffindor table but Lottie’s face is absolutely shining, she clearly knows where she belongs. So Louis claps and cheers along with them, watching her walk down to join a little gaggle of other first year Slytherins at the end.

It’ll be something to write home about, definitely. Not every day a home is divided between multiple houses! He’s just sad he won’t be here next year for Fizzy’s sorting.

— 

The year starts out like it always has; a rush of trying to find classes, juggle homework with chill time, and writing home about everything he forgot to pack. The additional stress of NEWTs isn’t even that bad yet since he already made his way through OWLs a few years ago and came out the other side with  _ fairly _ decent marks.

_ Rather - fairly - mostly _ decent.

As classes begin in full, Louis is delighted to find that they’ve got both Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures with the Ravenclaws, which means Niall. Liam’s got Runes with Niall as well, but Louis knew better than to take up that class. He knows what he wants to do for a profession someday and Runes has  _ no _ part of it.

He and Liam have got Double Potions with the Slytherins (and Louis already misses last year when they shared Potions with the Hufflepuffs, because they were  _ much _ less serious), and already Louis is tired of the snide remarks thrown around. He’s heard, of course, that the rivalry between Gryffindors and Slytherins used to be much, much worse, and that’s calmed down quite a bit since the war, but the Slytherins always have been a bit holier-than-thou.

In the first lesson, all they do is introduction and syllabus, covering what they’re going to be learning this year, and how it’s all potions that are going to be necessary to perform in NEWTs (which, what else is new?). Louis’s already bored, and anyway if he needs to know anything Liam’s already taken half a scroll of notes.

He’s got his head resting in his hands and is entirely zoned out when someone opens the door to the classroom. He looks up and it’s that kid again - the curly haired one he saw outside the loo on the train. The boy waves at the professor and the professor acknowledges him with a nod, not even breaking what he’s been saying, and the boy makes his way to the very back of the classroom where a lone table sits with a cauldron on it.

_ Weird, _ Louis thinks, because he’s pretty sure he knows all the Slytherins that should be in this class and that kid is a total unknown to him.

— 

The kid is always in the back of their Potions class after that, it turns out. He’s not a part of the class, isn’t ever mixing the same potions that the rest of them are, but Professor Rempstone always gives him some sort of private instruction after she finishes the general lecture for the rest of the class.

“Liam,” Louis says under his breath one morning as Liam is busy trying to crush frog eyes. “Liam, who’s that?”

Liam tends to know shit like that. He makes friends with everybody, and everybody likes him. A true Gryffindor soul.

He nudges Liam in the ribs when Liam doesn’t pay him any attention. "Why is he here?" Louis motions to the boy at the back of the class, all alone at his cauldron with a head full of curls and a look of concentration on his face.

"Who - oh, Harry?" Of course Liam would know who he is. Louis struggles to remember the names of people in his own year.

"Sure. Harry. What's his story?" 

"He's a sixth year," Liam says. "Remedial potions during his study hour, I think.”

"Maybe he's a muggleborn," Louis says thoughtfully and Liam looks at him askance. "What, Liam? That's not a dirty word! It's just a fact! If you're muggle-born, I bet potions are gonna be difficult!"

"Well yeah but," and Liam lowers his voice. "Louis, I know we’re Gryffindors and all, but in Slytherin they don't exactly have a lot of muggle-borns. Or, if they do, I don't think they're likely to mention it to anybody. I know with the fall of Voldemort there have been a few more but I with some of the things I hear Slytherins saying  **_I_ **  certainly wouldn't want to be one in their house."

“Okay, sure. Lottie’s not said anything like that though, I hope she’s sticking up for the muggleborns in her class. But so this kid is just really bad at Potions class then?” He sneaks a look at the back of the class, where the boy - Harry - is hard at work with a mortar and pestle.

“They, um, they say he was homeschooled,” Liam says like it’s a huge and terrible secret. “His parents didn’t want him coming here at all, but he had to attend for at least a year to take his OWLs and NEWTs.”

“Doesn’t look like he got that good of an education, if he’s taking remedial potions,” Louis points out, frowning. Poor kid. “Liam, how the fuck do you even know? You’re a Gryffindor. I should be hearing all the same rumours you hear.”

Liam pulls a face, looking sheepish. “Since Zedd’s a prefect, he tries to keep up with what everyone’s doing in his house.”

“So… Your boyfriend was gossipping,” Louis deadpans.

_ “No!” _

“Yes. And you were too. Probably while you were sucking face.”

Liam puts his head in his hands and groans. “Why am I friends with you again?”

“It’s because you need a courageous Gryffindor to sort you out.”

“I’m a Gryffindor too!”

“Liam, you’re letting the Shrinking Solution bubble over.”

“I’m- shit!”

— 

The first time Louis really talks to Harry is about a week later. He’s just gotten out of Muggle Studies (which he thought he would  _ ace _ because his mum’s husband is a muggle, but seventh year is all about, like, muggle politics which Louis doesn’t give an ogre’s arse about.

He’s late for meeting the other Gryffindors down on the pitch for practice, so admittedly he’s all but running down the corridors. When he rounds a corner he finds himself colliding headfirst with another student, sending both of them to the ground along with everything they were carrying.

For Louis, at least, it’s just his broom, but the other boy looks to have just come from the library, because the floor is quickly littered with books and scrolls unrolling every which way.

“Sorry, shit! Sorry!” Louis curses, grabbing his broom off the floor and putting it to one side. It’s a hand-me-down from a distant cousin so he’s not too worried about it getting more roughed up than it already is. He starts to gather up the scrolls and roll them into an orderly fashion before looking up and discovering that the one he bumped into is the boy from the back of Potions.

“Hey,” he grabs a few more of the rolls of parchment that have tumbled across the hallway. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. You’re Harry, right? You stand in the back of my potions class?”

The boy looks at him like a startled deer. His curls are wild and his eyes are a green just lighter than his robes and Louis thinks they look rather nice. 

He waits a minute but the boy doesn’t seem willing to speak, so Louis just awkwardly hands the scrolls over. Harry takes them before ducking down and hurrying back down the corridor.

Louis watches him go and thinks about how weird he is. He’s seen him a couple times scurrying down the hallway, never with any of the other Slytherins that Louis assumes are in his grade. That being said, if he’s as awkward with them as he is with Louis he wouldn’t be too surprised if he hasn’t made a lot of friends.

Over the next week, Louis suddenly feels like he’s seeing Harry everywhere. Walking the hall between classes, sitting at the end of the table across from his own in the Great Hall, napping by the edge of the lake… 

In Louis’s opinion, the kid is pretty weird.

He’s always  _ alone, _ is the thing. He clearly doesn’t want to be here, Louis thinks, the way he’s avoiding everyone. Especially as a Slytherin - they’re all about making ‘connections’. Networking and shit. 

He tries to put Harry out of his mind. He’s got his own NEWTs to study for, the precious free time he has should be put toward having the most fun possible.

— 

Really, the one new thing about this year isn’t the stress of upcoming tests, it’s the wispy dog. The wispy dog keeps showing up. He appears in front of Louis at the most random of times; while he’s in bed skiving off his work, while he’s on his way to the greenhouses, while he’s in the  _ bath…  _

So he’s definitely not a Hogwarts Express ghost. But honestly, Louis isn’t entirely sure that the dog isn’t just a figment of his own imagination. So far, no one else has ever mentioned anything about a wispy dog running around the castle. 

— 

Fall slowly gives way to winter, the leaves turning from oranges and reds to dry lifeless browns that make the paths outside look barren and lonely. One thing Louis loves about his dorm is just how  _ warm _ it always is, the heater in the centre between their beds always going at full blast and making it toasty even as he wakes up to a view of frosty windowpanes every morning.

He’s still loathe to get out of bed, of course, because even with the warmest heater, first thing in the morning the chill still comes through the double glaze windows like they’re nothing at all. He practically runs across the stone floor when he gets up to make it to the carpets in the middle of the room. 

Liam wears socks to bed in the winters, has since they were first years, and Louis can always see his little royal red and gold socks poking out over the end of his bed. He looks ridiculous, quite honestly, and Louis is proud to say that he would never be caught dead wearing socks without shoes. Or, often, socks inside his shoes.

Getting up before the sun rises three days a week can be especially draining, and Louis often finds that the solution is to nap through his less rigorous classes. But it’s worth it, really, especially today because he’s not going to be alone.

He tugs on a warm jumper and dons his cloak and gloves over that (because it’s late November and the crisp Scottish air is brutal in the morning), before tugging on a pair of boots and leaving the dormitory.

The house elves are hard at work this time in the morning, preparing breakfast for when the majority of students make their way downstairs. Louis learned years ago though, that if he goes and knocks on the door to the kitchens they’ll give him a bit of something to take with him and tide him over until breakfast.

Today when he swings by and knocks on the door, he’s greeted by one of his personal favourite elves, Honey. She’s got unnervingly long eyelashes and always insists on sending him off with fresh cocoa in the winter.

“I’ve got an extra with me today, if you wouldn’t mind doubling my usual breakfast order,” he tells her, crouching down so that they’re more or less at eye level.

“Master Tomlinson just wants more for himself,” she says, giving him a look that could be stern, but her bug-like features make it look more odd and endearing. 

“I do not!” he argues, laughing. “My sister! She’s a first year and has finally bribed me into showing her my secret.”

“Another Master Tomlinson!” Honey squeaks, breaking into a smile that makes her ears flop. “Honey will certainly bring extra breakfast for her! Why didn’t Master Tomlinson simply  _ say _ so!”

Louis rolls his eyes, watching Honey scurry back into the kitchens. She’s endearing, to say the least.

Five minutes later finds him walking toward the front entrance, two drinks and a bag of pastries in his arms.

“Lottie!” Louis calls happily when he finds her waiting just inside the large wooden doors.

She gives him a sleepy glare before yawning into her hand. “You couldn’t have a mysterious thing to show me at, like, ten in the morning? It had to be five thirty?”

Louis laughs. “You’re not allowed to be this snappy, you’re not even a teenager yet! Here, this’ll make you feel better.” He hands her one of the two mugs of hot chocolate, and then digs in the bag until he finds one of the two croissants.

She takes both greedily, and inhales a large amount of the hot chocolate in one gulp. “Okay,” she says. “Where are we going?”

“Out,” says Louis, pushing on one of the large wooden doors until it creaks open just enough for the two of them to fit between.

Outside, Louis holds the hot chocolate up to his face so that he can feel the warmth. They make their way down the stony steps in silence, the morning mist and sparse birdsong joining with the echoing of their footfall and making an eerie setting.

They round the bend and the little cabin owned by the groundskeeper comes into view. Louis looks over to see Lottie’s expression. Care of Magical Creatures isn’t an elective until Year 3, so he doesn’t think she’s been out here yet.

Her face doesn’t give much away, but he sees the little spark of excitement in her when she notices the two hippogriffs lounging on the roof up against the smokestack. They’re massive creatures by the names of Silverbeak and Cottonclaw - twins born from the same agg and complete terrors when they’re hungry.

“Hagrid!” Louis shouts as he pounds on the door, waking the hippogriffs with a start. “Hagrid, it’s cold! Let us in!”

He steps back when he hears the heavy footfall within, and a moment later the door is thrown inward.

“Yeh, I hear ya. C’mon in, Oi’m just mixing up brekkie for the troublemakers on the roof.”

There in the doorway stands Hagrid, looming about twice as tall as Louis with a great ruddy brown coat on and a face of silvery whiskers.

“Who’s this yeh brought then? Blimey, you managed to find someone smaller than you are?”

“Hagrid meet Lottie,” Louis says, gesturing between them as he simultaneously shoulders pask Hagrid into the warmer cabin. “Lottie, this is Hagrid.”

Lottie, always one to act brave even when Louis can clearly see she’s a bit intimidated by Hagrid’s stature, sticks out the free hand that’s not holding her hot cocoa. “How do you do?” 

Hagrid lets out a mighty laugh. “Well Oi’m not half bad, since Oi’m not the one that has ta be going out and feeding the little ‘uns today. Come on in, I’m sure yer brother’ll show you around.”

Louis takes a seat on one of the large wooden chairs and puts his mug (empty of hot cocoa) on the table. The cabin is warm and snug as ever, small and cramped but with a sort of homey life to it that would make any young wizard feel a bit more relaxed. Terror, the laziest great dane Louis has ever met, is sleeping under the table with his head propped up on the rung of a chair.

Lottie, still staring wide-eyed at her surroundings as she enters, comes to stand by Louis. “What’s going on?” she whispers. “You just have morning tea here three times a week? That’s not exactly exciting.”

“You wish,” Louis says. 

He waits until Hagrid slops over a large bucket of fish, the smell pungent. Hagrid loves to talk while Louis is over, and Louis’s spent years listening to his amazing stories about trying to secretly raise dragons, a spider he once tried to keep in his dorm while he was at school, a thunderbird that he  _ nearly _ won in a game of snooker…

This morning is no different. Today as Louis grabs the bucket of fish and motions for Lottie to follow, Hagrid tells them about a time when Terror once brought home a live pixie in his jaws.

“She was a frightened li’l thing, I tell ya!” He says, motioning to Lottie just how little it was supposed to be. “‘Course Terror over there didn’t much care one way or t’ other, Oi think he just wanted to show he’s useful.”

Louis grins, thinking how ridiculous it sounds to imagine Terror trying to be useful, he hasn’t seen the dog so much as bark at a crow.

Outside, the hippogriffs on the roof can clearly smell the bucket Louis is lugging, and clamber down the cabin as soon as he’s outside, cawing excitedly.

He puts the bucket down and motions Lottie over. Hagrid stands in the doorway, large enough that he’s more or less keeping the warmth inside the cabin.

“Here,” Louis says, sticking his hand in the bucket and drawing out a large silvery fish, warm but still very much intact. “You take this one…”

“Oh no you don’t,” Lottie says “I’m not touching dead fish, no way.”

Louis rolls his eyes and then chucks the one in his hands at her, making her screech. “Don’t be such a baby, they’re not that slimey. Here, see?” He gets another one out of the bucket and then looks up at the twins, who’ve both moved to stand at the edge of the rooftop, watching him closely. He takes the fish by the tail and lobs it almost straight up, where it’s immediately snapped up by Cottonclaw, who’s opened his wings just enough to glide gracefully down to the ground. 

Louis looks over at Lottie, knowing she’s going to love the look of the wings. She’s an artsy one, obsessed with integrating muggle and wizard fashion, and he figured she’d love the chance to get her hands on a few of their molted feathers.

The wings definitely caught her attention; she’s staring at Cottonclaw with awe even as he snarfs down the fish with no manners whatsoever.

“Come on then,” he says, taking another fish out and then chastising Cottonclaw when he immediately lunges forward to snap at it. “They’re a bunch of babies really. Try throwing that one up, Silverbeak will catch it no matter how bad of a toss it is.”

Tentatively, Lottie takes it, acting for only a second like she might vom, and immediately tosses it up in the air before ducking like she’s afraid she’s about to be landed on.

Silverbeak doesn’t even leave the roof, leaning forward just enough to snatch the fish in her beak before sitting back on her haunches and pointing her face upward, gulping down the fish in a most un-ladylike fashion.

“Gross,” says Louis.

“Cool,” says Lottie.

They take turns throwing the fish, once Lottie warms up to the idea, until the bucket is empty. He was worried before all of this that Lottie would refuse to take any part on anything this morning, but she proves him delightfully wrong. She helps him feed the thestrals, even though neither of them can see the supposedly scary-looking horse creatures, and follows him as he carefully refills the doxy traps (because they’re eating everything set out for the unicorn again), and he gets to show her a few mooncalf prints in the soft earth at the edge of the trees.

Just before breakfast is due to start in the Great Hall they begin their trek back, first to Hagrid’s cabin to drop off the empty bags of dried gillyweed (a treat for bowtruckles that makes them friendly). 

“But why?” Lottie asks him, after a couple minutes of walking in silence. “Like, this is cool and all, but I don’t think I would miss sleep multiple times a week just to feed some animals.”

Louis picks some of the dried gillyweed from between his nails. He figured this conversation would come up eventually, it’s sort of why he invited her in the first place. “I dunno Lotts,” he says. “I think this is just what I want to do, you know? For a living?”

“You want to feed animals?”

“Well, raise them. Care for them. Hagrid’s going to step down soon, he tells me. Apparently he’s got a girl and a dragon up in the mountains of France and he says it’s about time to go join them.”

“He’s got a  _ girl?” _ Lottie looks shocked. “Like… a  _ woman?” _

“The term you’re looking for might be  _ giantess,” _ Louis says, and then giggled. “They say she’s a little taller than he is.”

_ “No way,” _ Lottie exclaims, eyes wide.

They’re both giggling now, and Louis tries very hard to calm down as they make their way around to the front of Hagrid’s cabin. Just as he’s opening the door, Lottie lets out a scream that hurts his ears, and the next thing he knows she’s hunkering down behind him as a greyish blue blur races past him, into the cabin, and then back out again.

_ “What is that?” _ Lottie yells, loud enough to draw Hagrid to the front of his hut as well.

The thing slows down as it circles them, and Louis recognises the familiar form of the wispy dog.

“You’re fine,” Louis says, pulling her back up. “That’s just the wispy dog, he doesn’t hurt anyone.”

“What’d yeh call it?” Hagrid asks, leaning against the doorway. “Wispy dog? That there’s a Patronus, Oi haven’t seen one around here in a long time. She yours?”

“Is she-” Louis is taken aback. “She’s a  _ what?” _

“A Patronus!” Hagrid watches the dog circle them, a smile playing on his lips. “They’re a little advanced for Hogwarts magic I think, even for a smart one like yourself, but I remember a time when there were Patronuses running down every hall around here.”

The dog comes to a stop in front of Louis quite suddenly, sitting down on her haunches and staring up at Louis, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.

“Why does she keep appearing then?” Louis asks. “Hagrid, I’ve seen her at least once a week since coming back to Hogwarts this year, I thought she was a ghost!”

Hagrid hums. “Sounds like someone’s really trying to get your attention,” he says. 

Louis reaches out toward the dog. The second his hand touches her snout she fades into mist and is gone.

“Well the message is getting lost in translation,” he says.

— 

On the days that Louis doesn’t get up before the general populous, he’s likely to miss breakfast altogether, and end up just barely sliding into History of Magic before the door shuts.

Thankfully Niall gives him all the details that he missed at breakfast, which on this sleepy Wednesday morning means filling him in on the plans for the game.

“We’re going down to the Slytherin common room,” Niall tells him. “Liam wants us to become friends with Zedd so that he doesn’t feel like the awkward middleman anymore.”

“Liam didn’t actually say that,” Louis says confidently. Right now Liam is sitting three rows ahead of them taking studious notes. Louis will copy them later.

“No of course not, but you know it’s true,” Niall says, knocking him on the shoulder. 

Louis rolls his eyes. “I don’t hate the guy.”

“No, but he thinks you do!”

“All guys think I hate them! They don’t understand my dry sarcasm!”

“I know, Lou. But unfortunately that dry sarcasm of yours sounds just like your normal voice. Just try to not say anything downright mean and he’ll worship the ground you walk on like everyone else.”

Louis scoffs, loud enough for the professor to throw him a nasty look before resuming teaching.

“Fine,” he says to Niall. “I’ll be nice until he realises I don’t hate him, and then I’m going right back into making fun of him for landing himself in the worst of the houses.”

— 

Louis knows that he has a habit of coming across as a bit mean to people, which is incredibly unfortunate since most of the time the people who assume he’s being mean to them are the ones that he’s desperately trying to win the affection of, not that he’d never let Niall know that.

Liam’s been one of his best mates for six going on seven years, and when he developed a crush on a Slytherin in Year 6, while Louis teased him mercilessly for it, he was more than willing to support the budding friendship.

Zedd started getting invited to more and more of their hangouts that year, and Louis tried his absolute hardest to hot sound like an arse the whole time, but it never quite worked. He can be perfectly polite with strangers, professors, estranged family members… 

And then when it comes to the people who actually matter, he overdoes it in an attempt to earn their affection and only manages to makes a total idiot of himself.

Thus, Zedd maybe thinks Louis hates him. It’s whatever.

The Slytherin common room is ridiculously gaudy as always, all greens and silvers and cold dungeon walls that Louis thinks would probably be slimey to the touch. Zedd’s not a bad guy really, of course he’s not if Liam likes him. Liam has good judgement. But Louis still questions his house placement. 

Still, he’s invited Liam, Louis and Niall over to listen to the quidditch game on the wizarding wireless and he’s always got a bottle of firewhiskey to share, so who is Louis to turn the invitation down? 

An hour into the game, the Sweetwater Allstars are being absolutely slaughtered by the Kenmare Kestrels, and Niall seems happy enough with where the game is going that he takes one last swig of firewhiskey and announces he’s going to bed. It’s well past midnight, and when Niall says his goodbyes only Zedd, Liam and Louis are left in the commons. Louis doesn’t mind being a third wheel, not really, but the firewhiskey is making him feel a bit pink-cheeked and mouthy, so when he glances over at Zedd and Liam just in time to catch them exchanging a chaste kiss, he shouts, “Oi! No public displays of affection in the common areas!”

Liam jumps back but Zedd just rolls his eyes. “Thank you for that,” he tells Louis. “You’ll wake people up with a voice like that.”

“Shouldn’t there be spells for that sort of thing?” Louis says, waving his hand dismissively.

“Sure, between here and the dormitories there are,” Zedd says. “But some people like a nice nap in the common room from time to time.”

“That’s weird,” Louis says, his voice coming out loud and petulant because it is, isn’t it? It’s weird. Zedd should agree with him because he just wants Liam to be happy and Liam is happy if Zedd is happy. “Zedd, don’t you think that’s weird?”

Zedd looks mildly uncomfortable, and Louis thinks he’s probably fucked something up. He takes another drink of firewhiskey.

“Louis you used to sleep down in the common room all the time when we were younger,” Liam pointed out. “When we would win a game and get overexcited and stay up all night.”

Louis frowns. “I  _ suppose,” _ he says. “But then you always carried me upstairs. That’s different. I was being  _ sociable. _ With my  _ friends. _ I like my friends.” He stretches up and puts his arm around Liam. “You too, Zedd. I know you think I hate you but I just don’t like Slytherins in general. Slytherins are all terrible. Nasty people. But I like  _ you.” _

“You don’t mean that,” Liam says reasonably, even as Louis is beginning to realise he’s once again said something dumb. Zedd is looking at him like he’s said something downright evil.

He’s trying to find something to say to make the situation better when a thud sounds from behind them. Louis looks back over the edge of the couch just in time to see Harry, hair wild mess and wide eyed, scramble up from the floor in front of a chair near the back of the room and bolt for the corridor leading toward the dormitories.

Shit.

Louis looks back at Liam and Zedd. 

Louis looks down at his firewhiskey.

Louis’s never drinking firewhiskey again.

— 

It feels like some sort of payback from the universe that while Louis thought he was seeing Harry everywhere  _ before, _ since the incident in the Slytherin common room it seems like those sightings have increased tenfold.

The difference this time around is that the second Harry sees him, he clearly does everything in his power to exit the situation. Louis’s never talked to the kid before, besides of course that one run-in in the corridor, but he’s apparently managed to completely terrify him. Now, when he and Harry cross paths in the hallway, Harry ducks and runs, more or less. Louis wants to stop him and explain that no, he’s not a total arsehole. He didn’t mean it. Harry can kip in the commons all he wants, for all Louis cares! But unfortunately as soon as he spots Harry, Harry is gone.

He’s still in the back of Potions, though. Generally he’s already there when Louis walks in with Liam, getting instruction from the professor for his independent study. Louis is determined that, if nothing else, he’ll be able to corner Harry before he leaves Potions and convince him that he doesn’t hate him.

Today, apparently, is not his day though. Maybe the furtive glances Louis was throwing over his shoulder all during class didn’t help (especially with Liam continually asking  _ what are you doing, we need to pay attention) _ , but the second class is dismissed, Harry is shouldering past him and out of the classroom, leaving Louis to gape after him while Liam grumbles about having to do all the work in cleaning up after their potion.

So. That Potions class is a dud, but as the day goes on, Louis finds himself dwelling on it. He feels guilty about the fact that he apparently has scared Harry so badly, even if a small part of him is also confused as to why a single comment would affect him so much. All through Care of Magical Creatures (in which they’re learning about the care of mooncalfs, which Louis has been personally feeding three times a week for years), Harry is on his mind, to the point where it’s driving him absolutely crazy. He’s just one guy! Harry shouldn’t base his entire mood on one guy! Where are his friends? Has the kid really still not made any?

By the end of class he’s rather up in arms about it. He shouldn’t affect Harry’s life so much! The mooncalfs take notice, and a few of them nearly bowl him over in an attempt to comfort. Most of them are taller than he is. It’s unfortunate.

Maybe Harry needs to toughen up. That’s what Louis thinks as he heads to dinner. Maybe he needs some tough love. Sometimes his sisters need a bit of talking to, to be told that they’re being a bit ridiculous. They’re better for it. 

He leaves the dining hall, food mostly untouched, with a new resolution. He’ll confront Harry, tell him that he’s being ridiculous, and he needs to rely on his own self-worth. Fuck what Louis thinks about him! They don’t even know each other!

“Liam!” Louis shouts as he enters into the common room, the Fat Lady  _ tut-tutting _ behind him. 

Liam’s sigh is palpable, and can be heard even from the other end of the common room. Louis walks over to him, dropping his satchel next to the chair where Liam has clearly set up to study for the night. 

“I need you to get Zedd for me.”

“Um, no?” Liam says, not looking up. “I have a Runes test tomorrow. I’m not moving from this spot.”

“Li- _ um.” _ Louis flops dramatically onto the arm of the cushy chair. “I need help. I need to talk to Harry. So I need Zedd.”

“Why do you need to talk to Harry?” Liam asks, suddenly suspicious. “You’ve never talked to Harry. Do you even know him?”

“You’re not with me twenty four seven, Liam! You don’t know!” Louis argues. “I just need to talk to Harry, okay? So can you get Zedd for me, or not?”

“Not,” says Liam, going back to his work. “You know where the Slytherin common room is, go invite yourself over! Let me revise in peace.”

“No one will let me in without you!” Louis tries, as a last attempt. “You’re the friendly, nice Gryffindor! I’m the incorrigible one.”

“I don’t know what that word means and I don’t care. I don’t know what you want with Harry but I want no part in it. Shoo.”

_ Shoo. _

How patronising.

Louis sticks his tongue out at Liam, and maybe possibly knocks some of his scrolls to the floor as he gets off the chair. Fine. He doesn’t need Liam’s help.

He leaves his bag there but pockets his wand out of habit. It’s early evening and the halls have a few students wandering here and there but most of them are in their respective common rooms or studying in the library. 

As a seventh year, even the moving staircases don’t faze him at this point. He knows the castle like the back of his hand, even if it was only last year that he managed to find himself in the Slytherin common room for the first time.

Come to think of it, he’s still never been in the Hufflepuff common room. That’s sad. He’ll have to sneak his way in before he graduates.

He takes a bit of a shortcut, one that he found back in third year when he was desperately lost that takes him through an old classroom with a back door. He thinks maybe he should make a map of the castle at some point. To pass on to future generations. 

He’s descending the staircase down to the lower level near the common room when he comes to the realisation that he’s not alone - there are voices up ahead.

He doesn’t mean to spy on the conversation exactly, it’s just that he also doesn’t want to walk out in the middle of them talking if it does happen to be something personal. It’s not at all that he recognises Harry’s voice as one of them.

“You going to hide in the library again, Mudblood?” a voice asks, sounding snide. Louis immediately dislikes them. Who the fuck even uses such an old fashioned insult? This isn’t the nineties!

“Just leave me alone, Tippon.” Harry’s voice sounds timid, small. Louis hasn’t heard him speak up much besides quiet conversations with the Potions professor, but he definitely never sounded like this. Defeated. Tired.

“Come on, Styles. It’s almost like you don’t  _ like _ us! You’re almost never in the dorm room, it’s almost like you’ve got something against Slytherins. What, that dirty muggle blood you’ve got make you think you’re better than us?”

“Or what, are you scared of a couple little purebloods like us? I mean sure, it probably means we’re better wizards. And stronger. But you’ve been homeschooled your whole life, so I guess maybe you already knew that. Too scared to come to Hogwarts and face  _ real _ wizards then?”

“Please just let me get by,” Louis hears Harry say, and Louis about loses it. He wants to go teach what sounds like two Slytherin jackasses a lesson. He wants to-

The next thing he knows there’s a thunk noise, followed by the sound of running footsteps retreating down the hallway. Fearing the worst, Louis finally turns the corner.

There Harry is, leaning with his back against the wall and holding his nose as it gushes blood. He looks up, eyes wide, when Louis comes toward him.

“What’d they do?” Louis asks, trying to keep his voice calm when Harry ducks his head. “I need to know if I can get them detention, or if I should just go murder them myself.”

Harry looks even more terrified at this proposition. “They- nothing! Just, um. Hit my nose. Didn’t use magic or anything.”

Louis frowns. He draws out his wand and then sees the way Harry watches it like it’s a dangerous weapon. “I can stop the bleeding,” he says by way of explanation. He’s learned a fair amount of healing spells, what with caring for small violent baby hippogriffs straight out of the egg. They bite.

Harry looks wary, so Louis goes into big brother mode. “Promise. It’ll be two seconds and you won’t feel a thing. Just need you to move your hand for a second.”

He tilts his head up and moves his hand, tentatively, just down as low as his collarbone. Good enough. Louis flicks his wand with a quick muttered  _ “Nares habent,” _ and hears Harry suck in a breath. Okay. Not entirely painless.

“Shit,” Harry wipes the blood from his face onto his hand. “Um. Thanks, I mean.”

Louis shrugs. “I’m good at it,” he says, trying to sound humble. He’s pretty sure he doesn’t succeed. “Do those guys give you a hard time a lot?”

Harry shrugs, looking down again. “I should go,” he says, sounding unsure.

“No, wait!” Louis feels like if Harry runs now it’ll be impossible to catch him again later. “I just wanna help, yeah? They’re a couple of idiots if they think they can get away with this. Have they been jerks to you all year?”

Harry looks exceedingly uncomfortable. 

“I have to- Thanks. But I have to go.”

He turns and more or less bolts down the hallway, but Louis isn’t done - he needs to know who those guys were, because what they were saying to Harry was  _ bad, _ no matter the circumstance. He follows Harry, running after him into the common room before the door can close properly behind him, attracting stares from a number of people (including Zedd, who Louis at least tries to wave to. To be nice.), and down toward where Louis assumes Harry’s dorm room is. 

“Harry?” Louis yells after him. “Wait! Come on, just a second-” 

He’s not expecting to stumble into Harry when the hallway dead ends into the dorm room, but he can’t stop quite fast enough and ends up falling with Harry straight onto one of the beds.

Which, that might be sort of romantic any other time, because Louis has been noticing lately that Harry might be just a little bit attractive, in the cut of his jaw and the curl of his hair and the green of his eyes.

But it’s not romantic in any sense. Because as soon as they land on the bed, it feels like whispers are coming at him from every angle, quiet but continuous.

_ “Mudblood.” _

_ “You’re not wanted here.” _

_ “A stain on the Slytherin house.” _

_ “Couldn’t even stay in Potions. Failure.” _

_ “Mudblood.” _

_ “Just leave.” _

_ “Go home.” _

_ “Mudblood.” _

Louis scrambles off of Harry, off of the bed, and as soon as he does the whispers stop. Harry stands up after him, staring at Louis as if Louis has just done something terrible. 

“Harry- what was that?” Louis asks, feeling sick to his stomach.

“They said-” Harry gulps, running a hand through his hair. “They said I couldn’t tell anyone!

“Who?” Louis asks, taking a step forward, but stopping when Harry takes a step back. “Who said that? About those voices?”

“They said I had to figure it out myself - h-how to get rid of them - or else they’d jinx me with a worse one!” he wails, putting his hands over his face. “I just- I can’t sleep! I can’t sleep in my bed because of this shitty jinx and I can’t sleep in the common room because my back wakes me up every hour in that chair and I’m always so  _ tired _ and Hogwarts is  _ horrible, _ because no one told me there was a  _ wrong _ house to get into until I was already in it! I just want to go  _ home!” _

He crumples to the floor, backing up against the stone wall and lets out a sob, burying his face in his arms. For a second Louis stands there frozen. Every muscle in him is screaming to get his wand and go after Harry’s roommates. Lock them in the astronomy tower with an acromantula, or just kick the shit out of them if he needs to do it the old fashioned way. But he can’t do that. Not yet, at least. Because here’s Harry, clearly having had the worst year of his life to date.

He drops to his knees and pulls Harry’s hair back from his face, running his fingers through it and smoothing it, the way he does for his sisters when they’re having a bad day. “I’ll fix this,” he tells him. Because he still doesn’t know Harry, not really, but he gets the feeling that even having just really talked to Harry for the first time tonight, he probably already knows more about him than anyone else in this school. 

He sits and waits, alternating between running his fingers through Harry’s hair, and rubbing his back in soothing circles. When Harry’s sobs quiet down, Louis asks him, “Was it those guys? The ones in the corridor?”

Harry nods, slowly.

“Have they been doing this shit all year?”

Even slower, Harry nods again.

“Well then,” Louis says with authority, “You’re coming to my dorm.”

Harry finally looks up at him, eyes red and wary. “Why?”

Louis stands. “So that you can get some sleep. Now, come on.” He holds out his hand and Harry takes it, tentatively. He stumbles as he stands, and Louis figures with how little sleep he’s probably gotten, he’s surprised Harry can stand at all.

Louis leads him out of the dorm, past the whispering bed (he’s going to get those kids kicked out if he can, that’s what he decided while he sat there with Harry). They walk through the Slytherin common room and nobody bats an eye, before making their way through the near-silent castle.

Louis realises as they take the stairs that he never let go of Harry’s hand.

“You don’t have to,” Harry says at one point. “I should go back. I can sleep in the common room, I’m used to it.”

“Nope,” Louis says, squeezing his hand. “You need actual sleep or you’re not going to make it through another day. Josh snores but I’ve got a pretty good silencing charm.”

“Oh, I don’t mind a bit of snoring,” Harry says, sounding almost wistful. “My dog back home snores. He’s horrible, really.”

Louis smiles. “Yeah? Does he sleep in your bed?”

“Of course,” Harry says. “I mean. He wasn’t supposed to. But I let him when he was a puppy and he just didn’t stop. He’s huge and fluffy now, and gets fur in everything.”

“What’s his name?”

Harry smiles, and Louis likes the way it looks. “Quigley.”

“Quigley Styles?”

“Quigley Twist. He has my mum’s last name. Sounds better.”

Harry starts getting rather twitchy when Louis tells the Fat Lady the password. “Are you sure it’s okay?” he asks. “Since I’m not a Gryffindor? Most Slytherins besides Zedd don’t like when you guys come to our common room. I know Gryffindors don’t like Slytherins.”

Louis feels his heart squeezed a little. “You’ve got a bad lot in your class,” he says. “But that’s not how everyone is. Yeah, we’ve got some serious house rivalry going, but most of us aren’t actually serious when we say things about other houses, and if someone  _ is _ serious, then that’s a problem. We’re all wizards. There’s not actually anything different about us, you know? But trust me, Gryffindors are chill. They won’t care.”

They step inside the common room and sure enough, no one even looks up from their conversations and revising. What are they, Ravenclaws? They walk through to the stairs that lead up to the dorms and Liam does briefly look up, looking extremely perplexed when he sees Louis and Harry holding hands, but Louis ignores him. Liam will question him about it later, but that’s what he gets for refusing to come to the Slytherin room with him.

When they emerge in Louis’s dorm, there’s already one boy - Cam - out like a light, his feet hanging over the edge of the bed. Louis takes a moment to feel embarrassed for how messy his corner of the room is, but figures Harry probably won’t mind.

“This is me,” he says, pointing to his own bed. Lulu is sitting on the end of it, and as soon as they approach she stretches and pads up to the edge, watching Harry with the hopeful eye of a cat who knows they’ve found a dog person to try to convert. “Sleep. We can figure everything else out later, okay?” Harry looks like he might argue but Louis only pushes him toward the bed. “You’ll feel better, trust me. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Harry still seems unsure, but when he looks back at Louis there’s a thankfulness in his eyes that makes Louis want to wrap him in blankets forever and keep him safe from a clearly unfair world. Well, he’s certainly gonna try.

He pushes Harry gently down onto the bed, and Lulu is immediately on top of him, nuzzling and purring and holding him captive. Louis thinks it’s safe to leave, because Lulu isn’t going to let him up any time soon. She’s stubborn like that. 

He slips out and back down to the common room to find Liam and plot murder. Or expulsion, at least.

— 

At eight in the morning, Louis is awoken to sharp little kitty claws digging into his stomach. Lulu is how he awakes most mornings, but when his groggy disoriented state dissipates he realises that he fell asleep in the common room, and didn’t even manage to wake when what was probably a majority of the Gryffindor house made their way past him down to breakfast.

Then of course, he remembers the night before. Telling Liam everything after Harry had fallen asleep in his bed (he checked to make sure only ten minutes later and Harry was sprawled across his covers, fully dressed, lightly snoring in a rather adorable way). Liam, of course, had immediately gone and found the Gryffindor Head of House, Professor Pomegana, who had listened and then gotten the Slytherin Head of House, Professor Wollyoak, and Louis was made to tell the story  _ again, _ and Pomegana and Wollyoak had left in quite a hurry. Louis had wanted to go with them, but he was also feeling rather dead on his feet after that excitement and it was late enough that he and Liam were the last ones in the room.

He considers the benefits of sleeping through breakfast, and is just about to go back to sleep, when suddenly down from the stairs to the dorm rooms comes the wispy dog. She looks especially excited today, even more than normal if that’s possible for a big fluffy dog like her. She bounds over to Louis and circles his chair a few times, while Lulu hisses and spits, which in turn just makes Louis laugh because the dog isn’t even  _ real, _ Lulu, don’t be ridiculous.

There’s a pounding on the steps a moment later and Harry appears, his hair a halo of wild curls and his clothes sleep-rumpled. He stops in his tracks and stares when he sees the wispy dog.

Or, is it when he sees Louis?

The dog apparently takes Harry as her cue, because she makes a motion like she’s barking and runs toward Harry, circling him as well a couple times before running back to Louis, and over to Harry again before finally leaping up as if to tackle Harry and then simply disappearing.

Harry looks to Louis, eyes wide. “Have you- Have you seen this dog before?”

“All the time,” Louis says, feeling confused. “Is she yours?”

“Um- yeah,” Harry says, and Louis notices with interest that his cheeks are turning pink. “That’s Quigley.”

“Your dog is a  _ ghost?” _ Louis asks.

“No!” Harry takes a wand out of his pocket. “He’s still alive, he’s just back home. But he’s also my, um, Patronus?”

“Right, I’m not actually sure what that is,” Louis says. “Hagrid says it’s magic too advanced for Hogwarts students usually.” 

Harry frowns. “Is it?” he says, mostly to himself. “My mum taught us this two years ago. The Patronus charm is a protection charm? So your Patronus is generally an animal that means something to you, and when I left home it became Quigley. Which is kind of nice, actually.” He smiles softly and Louis feels himself smiling back, even if he doesn’t quite understand.

“But, I’ve seen him everywhere,” Louis says. “Since the first day of school! He follows me around! That doesn’t seem like a good protection charm.”

Harry’s got quite wide eyes now. “Every time?” he asks, mouth open in surprise. “I mean, the type of Patronus charm I use, it’s to find someone safe when you don’t feel like you’re safe?” He holds up his wand and swishes it once in the air.  _ “Expecto Patronum Praesidium.” _

The dog, Quigley, bursts forth from it again, and immediately heads toward Louis (Lulu chooses this moment to run from the room). Quigley circles him a few times, as always, before sitting at his feet.

“I couldn’t ever figure out who he was going toward though,” Harry says. “He goes toward whoever means no harm, but he always went too far away for me to find before he disappeared again.”

“That’s kind of a low bar you’ve set,” Louis says with a frown. “Means no harm is a little different than wanting to help.” 

Harry shrugs. “I’ll take what I can get,” he says, not meeting Louis’s eye.

“Hey now,” Louis says. He puts out his hand to Quigley, who goes as if to sniff him before disappearing. “Well, we’re going to do better than that now, aren’t we?”

“We are?” Harry asks, looking at him in a sort of confusion that makes Louis hurt. 

“Yeah,” he says. “We’re going to sit at the Gryffindor table, and I’m going to introduce you to the good guys. And you’re going to have the best fucking year ever, I promise.”

He holds out his hand, and Harry takes it, even if he does look unsure.

That’s okay. Louis is sure enough for the both of them.

— 

It’s a good thing Niall has made it a habit of sitting at the Gryffindor table, since it means that Harry sitting with them isn’t a totally weird occurrence. When Louis sits down at the end of the bench, motioning for Harry to sit next to him, he purposefully sits them facing away from the Slytherin table.

“Lads,” Louis says.

“Offensive,” says Bebe.

“This is Harry,” Louis motions to Harry, who ducks his head, looking embarrassed. “Harry is everyone’s new best friend, okay?”

“Cool,” says Niall. “I’m Niall.”

Harry smiles shyly. Louis bumps him in the shoulder. 

There’s a round of introductions from the general vicinity; Bebe, Liam, two girls named Perrie and Jade… They’re as friendly as can be expected at the early hour.

“Oh, and that’s Lottie - hey Lotts!” Louis calls, seeing his sister walk into the hall. For a moment it looks like she’s going to act like she doesn’t see him  _ (Rude!) _ but then she comes over, bringing one of her Slytherin classmates by the arm.

“Yeah?” she asks, tilting her face like she’s trying to model. Louis wonders if she’s trying to act cool in front of his Seventh Year friends. He thinks it’s adorable.

“This is Harry,” he says, and this time hears Harry’s soft laughter.

_ “You don’t need to introduce me to  _ everybody,” Harry whispers.

“Shush.” Louis waves his hand dismissively. “You get no say. Lottie! This is the best Slytherin you’re ever gonna meet,” he tells her sternly. “Be cool to him.”

She eyes Harry up and down. “Aren’t you the one who’s always asleep in the common room?” she eventually asks.

“Yeah,” Harry says weakly, unsure.

Lottie pauses. “...Cool.”

Louis can’t help it. He bursts out laughing. “Thanks, Lotts. Now go eat breakfast.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” she says, and Louis only laughs harder as she takes her friend by the arm again and walks away. She’s already got that Slytherin sass. 

He’s sad when breakfast is over, because Harry has only just started to open up to people, laughing at Niall stuffing toast in his pocket and shyly telling Liam what he wants to do when he’s graduated (open a bakery in Hogsmeade, where there hasn’t been one since the nineties). As they all part ways from the table he remembers that he’s got Double Potions later in the morning, which means seeing Harry again. It brightens his day considerably.

On Double Potions days, he doesn’t have first hour class, so he generally heads to the library (because it’s becoming winter and it’s too cold to hang around near Hagrid’s hut). Today, he leaves a little early to make it to class on time and maybe get a word in with Harry. Talk about potions or something.

That doesn’t happen though, because Zedd finds him in the hallway before he makes it to class.

“We need to talk,” he says, pulling Louis into a side corridor.

“Um, okay?” Louis follows, carefully extricating Zedd’s hand from his robe. “What about?”

“About Harry,” Zedd says with a frown. “What are you trying to pull?”

“What am I- what the fuck?” Louis gapes at Zedd. “What do you mean what am I trying to pull?”

“I mean I don’t trust you, Tomlinson,” Zedd says, and what the fuck, they’re not even on first name basis? Louis knew he and Zedd weren’t exactly friends but he thought they were at least on friendly terms.

“It’s a known fact you don’t like Slytherins, and you honestly don’t deserve a friend like Liam, but to go so far as to antagonize Harry? We all saw him yesterday, he looked a mess after you went after him.”

“Whoa, slow the fuck up,” Louis argues, putting up his hands. “Listen, you’re missing some pretty major facts here. For starters, the fact that I’m pretty sure two students from  _ your _ house got expelled last night, and all I was doing was making sure Harry was  _ safe, _ which he clearly hadn’t been considering the reason he’d been sleeping in the hallway was because his roommates had fucking  _ jinxed his bed and then threatened him. _ But sure. It’s my ‘hatred of Slytherins’. Let’s go with that.”

“Expelled?” Zedd looks incredulous. He looks like he thinks Louis is crazy. “I would have known about that. What are you, a pathological liar? Harry’s a bit of a loner but he’s  _ fine, _ and he definitely doesn’t need a stuck-up Gryffindor like you to come in and play  _ hero-” _

There’s the sound of a throat being cleared behind them and Louis turns to see Harry, hands clasped around his satchel tightly. “I- I wasn’t fine,” he stammers. “And Louis  _ did _ help. He’s not bad. He just, he saw me when no one else did.” He looks Louis in the face and Louis could melt, so happy that Harry at least doesn’t think that he’s a Slytherin hater. “It’d be nice if you didn’t draw conclusions without, um. Without talking to me first about it.”

Harry looks down at his shoes, but Louis can see he’s already being ages braver than he has been all school year. He looks back at Zedd to see an even more confused look than he had before.

“Harry’s my friend,” Louis tells him. “And I don’t hate all Slytherins. I’m just a sarcastic little shit who doesn’t know when to shut up. But I don’t hate you, either. Liam thinks you’re great so you must be, and I’m going to disregard this incident because I don’t want what you think of me to come between you two. But for now, I think we’d better keep our distance.”

He doesn’t wait for Zedd to say anything, because he figures continuing a conversation now might only make tempers flare again. But he smiles at Harry, and follows him into class.

Liam tells Louis at dinner that Zedd is sorry, and that he didn’t mean what he said the way it sounded. Louis figures it’s progress. Slow, but progress.

— 

It’s a thing that they don’t talk about much in the beginning, the fact that Harry sleeps in the Gryffindor dorms. Even after two of his classmates are expelled and his bed is counter-jinxed, he just doesn’t feel comfortable sleeping there anymore.

And Louis can’t sleep in the common room forever. He actually only sleeps in it once more before Harry insists on Louis sleeping in his own bed. And Louis insists on Harry sleeping in Louis’s bed. So they don’t mean for it to be a  _ thing, _ but that’s what it becomes. And they don’t really talk about it. 

They don’t talk enough in the beginning, but when Louis and Harry go home for Christmas, that’s when the letters really start. And everything that was too much to say in person pours out of each of them with a quill late at night.

_ I want to keep being there for you. _

_ I want you with me. _

When they get on the Hogwarts Express after winter holidays, it’s with fingers intertwined and their first kiss tingling on their lips.

**Author's Note:**

> You can visit me at [LondonFoginaCup](http://londonfoginacup.tumblr.com) on tumblr, and the post for the fic can be found [here!](http://londonfoginacup.tumblr.com/post/165299017944/harp-string-hum-ladylondonderry)


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